DEcIDE Center: Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness
In September 2005 the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research was named to lead one of 13 centers nationally funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under the "Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness" (DEcIDE) Research Network. This group of centers was formed to assist the federal government in evaluating the new Medicare Part D drug benefit, with the mandate for such evaluation included in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. The CPR serves as the coordinating site for the Chicago-Area DEcIDE Center, a collaborative that also includes the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. To date the Chicago-Area DEcIDE Center has been awarded four contracts under the DEcIDE program.